2010 Spotlight

High-Poverty Public Schools

Where are high-poverty schools located?

Compared with other locales, cities tended to have greater percentages of high-poverty schools. In 2007–08, about 40 percent of city elementary schools were high-poverty schools, compared with 15 percent of schools in towns, 13 percent of suburban schools, and 10 percent of rural schools (see table A-24-3). A similar pattern was found at the secondary level: 20 percent of all city secondary schools were high-poverty, while in the other three locales 5 to 8 percent of schools were high-poverty.

In 2007–08, approximately 24 percent of all public elementary schools in both the South and West were high-poverty schools, compared with 16 percent in the Northeast and 12 percent in the Midwest (see table A-24-3). The states with the highest percentages of high-poverty elementary schools in 2007–08 were Mississippi (53 percent), Louisiana (52 percent), New Mexico (46 percent), the District of Columbia (37 percent), and California (34 percent). At the secondary school level, 12 percent of all public schools in the West and 11 percent each of schools in the Northeast and South were high-poverty, compared with 5 percent of schools in the Midwest. The states with the highest percentages of
high-poverty secondary schools in 2007–08 were Mississippi (43 percent), New Mexico (34 percent), Louisiana (27 percent), and New York (21 percent).